By Tim Clinton
Two major indoor soccer teams existed representing Tacoma at different times with the same name of Stars.
The original Stars actually played at the Tacoma Dome, while the second and current edition does practice at the Tacoma Indoor Soccer Center but plays its home matches at the Showare Center in Kent.
They share their home facility with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League.
The original Stars operated from 1983 to 1992 and played in the Major Indoor Soccer League.
The current team moved to the Major Arena Soccer League in 2014-2015.
It started off in the Professional Arena Soccer League in 2003 but later dropped to the minor league Premier Arena Soccer League and Western Indoor Soccer League before going national once again.
The original Tacoma team went through an up and down ride in the MISL.
It finished out of the playoffs in its first two seasons before qualifying third out of the West in 1985-1986 and then losing in a semifinal series.
The Stars won the West during the 1986-1987 regular season and advanced all the way to the MISL Championships before losing to the Dallas Sidekicks in the seventh game of the series in overtime.
That final clash took place at the Tacoma Dome and drew an indoor soccer all-time record 21,728 fans.
Tacoma lost in a division semifinal series after finishing fourth in the West the next year, and finished fourth in the West again in 1988-1989 and losing in a Wild Card showdown.
The Stars missed the playoffs after taking fourth again the season after that but made it back in 1990-1991 after taking third and lost in a division semifinal series.
Tacoma took sixth in the MISL in its final 1991-1992 season to miss the postseason party.
The current edition joined the MASL for 2014-2015 and finished fifth in the Pacific Division to miss the playoffs, then qualified third the next year with a 13-7 regular season record. It lost out in a division semifinal.
Third place was not good enough to qualify in 2016-2017, but the team qualified second the next two seasons, losing in the Division Finals both times.
The Stars finished fifth and did not make it in 2019-2020 but did make it in 2021 in spite of a sixth place overall MASL finish and lost in the quarterfinals.
It did not qualify as a fourth-place team in the West in 2021-2022 but made it after coming in fourth in 2022-2023 and lost a Western Conference play-in.
The team qualified third in the West the next year and fell short of the final won by Chihuahua, but the team did not qualify this past 2024-2025 season.